Oppn Leader Saikia Urges EAM Jaishankar to Halt Assam's Forced Pushback of Migrants

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Debabrata Saikia, Leader of the Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly, has written to External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar expressing grave concern over the Assam government’s ongoing detention and forced pushback of alleged illegal immigrants.

In his letter, Saikia highlighted several serious violations of constitutional rights and due process in what is being termed as Assam’s “pushback drive”.

The letter details that since 23rd May 2025, Assam Police have arbitrarily detained hundreds of Indian citizens not involved in any citizenship-related legal proceedings. While most detainees were eventually released, their wrongful apprehension itself points to serious procedural lapses. Families remain uninformed about the whereabouts of detainees, violating basic transparency norms. Media reports confirm that many detainees, including women, have been forcibly pushed into the no-man’s-land at the India-Bangladesh border, leaving them stateless as Bangladesh refuses to accept them.

Saikia reminded the EAM that this action directly contradicts India’s stated position on deportation, quoting Dr Jaishankar’s own parliamentary statement that emphasised the necessity of “unambiguous verification of nationality” before any repatriation. The letter notes with concern that these operations appear to target Muslim communities, undermining India’s secular fabric. It also points out that several cases are still pending before the Supreme Court, making these detentions and pushbacks a clear violation of the judicial process.

Saikia has urgently appealed for central intervention to immediately halt these unconstitutional actions, ensure proper nationality verification before any deportation, release all wrongly detained Indian citizens, and make detainee information publicly available. He stressed that pushing people in the no-man’s-land without proper legal procedure is both illegal and fundamentally inhumane.

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